Whole-Wheat Fusilli with Chicken and Spinach Sauce

Lately, my focus has been on making very healthy dishes. Healthy food is tricky because it can include a very broad range of food. What I mean by this is that as a cyclist, I need to eat healthy but I also need to fuel my workouts. I went through a recent phase where I was so concerned about staying slim that I didn't eat enough and found myself in a constant state of fatigue. I've been forced to rethink my perception of healthy and have come to the conclusion that healthy eating does not mean starving oneself. Rather, healthy eating means choosing nutritious, pure ingredients and preparing them in ways that allow all of their flavor and nutrients to come together in a balanced dish.

I am in California this weekend for some training and racing. While training this morning, I started craving two things: spinach and pasta. I therefore rode my bike down to the nearest supermarket, which happened to be Whole Foods, and picked out ingredients that could make a good dish. I ended up with onions and garlic (those two are indispensable), whole-wheat Fusilli, fresh spinach, chicken breast, chicken stock, and condensed cream of chicken soup base. Most of these ingredients were organic. Although I am not an organic-freak, I like the thought of using ingredients that are as clean and natural as possible.

I biked back to the apartment where I am staying. The host graciously allowed me to use his kitchen, and I got started. I pulled out two pots and a pan.

The first pot was for the Fusilli. I like to use whole-wheat pasta because it is less processed and is supposed to be healthier and more nutritious. I specifically chose fusilli because I find that pasta with more surface area such as this retains gooey sauces better and allows you to get more of the sauce in each bite. I cooked the pasta until it was al dente, strained it, then set it aside.

In the second pot, I heated the chicken stock to a boil and cooked my spinach in it. Once the spinach was tender, I drained most of the stock out and added the condensed soup mix. This created a creamy spinach sauce.

In the pan, I heated some olive oil. I then added about half an onion which I cooked until it was soft and translucent, then added a few crushed cloves of garlic. I allowed this to cook for a few minutes while I cubed my chicken breast. I then added that to the pan and allowed it to cook through.

I then poured the contents of the spinach/stock/soup pot to the pan, mixed it all up, seasoned it with salt, pepper, cayenne, and basil, and allowed it to reduce so that the sauce would be nice and thick. Finally, I tossed the pasta into the sauce and enjoyed my lunch!